MILWAUKEE _ There was plenty of hard contact on both sides Saturday at Miller Park. The Milwaukee Brewers hit three home runs, including the franchise's 27th of the inside-the-park variety. The Padres outdid them, drilling five home runs, their most in a game since 2008.
Three of those arrived in extras. In the end, it was enough for a 7-5 victory in 11 innings, ensuring that a brilliant performance by rookie Dinelson Lamet would not come in a loss.
After Milwaukee's Keon Broxton smashed a game-tying homer in the bottom of the 10th, San Diego's Cory Spangenberg led off the 11th with a go-ahead home run. Three batters later, Chase d'Arnaud added insurance in the form of his second career homer and first in a Padres uniform. Phil Maton, who was called up from Triple-A El Paso last weekend, recorded the final two outs of the game.
Yangervis Solarte and Wil Myers also went deep for the Padres, with Solarte notching his third career multi-homer game.
"Our guys fought all day," Padres manager Andy Green said. "The good thing we saw today is we got hit late in extra innings. Typically, we've folded in those situations. We battled back again and hit some more home runs in the 11th and Phil Maton got his first big-league save."
In his fifth career start, Lamet struck out 12 batters, 10 swinging, over six innings. The dozen whiffs are the second-highest single-game total by a Padres rookie in franchise history. Oliver Perez amassed 13 strikeouts on July 7, 2002, also in his fifth career start.
"If I'm commanding (my fastball), then I believe in myself and I trust my stuff," Lamet said through an interpreter. "There's a difference between Minor League hitters and Major League hitters. They're more selective here and you have to be aware of that here, but at the same time if I'm controlling my pitches and commanding the fastball, then I don't think it matters what level I'm at if I'm executing my plan and able to control the fastball that way.
Lamet became just the fourth pitcher this season to open a game with five consecutive strikeouts. He struck out the side again, in the fifth.
His dominance was interrupted in the third, when he elevated a slider to Orlando Arcia. Another Padres rookie, Franchy Cordero, misplayed Arcia's drive to right-center. The ball deflected off the wall and bounded along the warning track as Cordero gave chase. By the time left fielder Jose Pirela corralled it, Arcia had sprinted past third base, on his way to an inside-the-park home run.
Three batters later, Lamet threw a slider that caught too much of the plate. Eric Thames, the hero of Friday's 10th-inning walk-off, muscled a traditional homer to right-center, giving the Brewers a 3-1 lead.
The rest of Lamet's performance was virtually beyond reproach. The 24-year-old struck out Thames, Arcia and every Milwaukee starter at least once. After lacking command and surrendering seven runs in each of his previous two outings, he threw 64 of 86 pitches for strikes. He became just the fifth Padres pitcher in history to record no walks while striking out at least 12 batters in a game. For the first time in his young career, he stayed on the mound past the fifth inning.
"For him, that's the best stuff I've seen," Green said. "It's not the sinker that (2015 Padres All-Star) Tyson Ross would bring out at any time. It's more power four-seam (fastball). But the slider's very, very similar. ... As long as he gets it through his head that he's going to pitch at the top of the zone with that fastball, he's going to be very successful."
Brewers starter Chase Anderson also was effective, allowing three runs over seven innings. Two of the runs came on solo shots by Solarte and Myers, who each went deep for the second time in as many games. The third was driven in on a double by Hunter Renfroe.
Myers' blast, a 441-foot drive off the video board, tied the score, 3-3, in the sixth.
Solarte's second home run of the game, a two-run shot, gave the Padres a 5-3 lead in the 10th. After a relatively slow start to the season, the second baseman has hit four homers and driven in seven runs over the last five games.
In the bottom of the inning, Padres closer Brandon Maurer hit the leadoff batter, bringing Broxton up to bat. Maurer threw an 0-1 fastball over the plate. Broxton obliged, launching a two-run homer.
Unlike Friday, though, there would be no walk-off. Spangenberg and d'Arnuad delivered in the 11th. So did Maton, who said he would send the baseball from his first save back home to his parents.
"To lose the way we lost (Friday), it's OK," Solarte said through an interpreter. "Those things happen. We were fighting, we were making adjustments and we were going back and forth. It isn't that nobody's trying or working hard. And you see today _ we come back and we have the same type of game and we win."
.jpg?w=600)
